Inside or Outside Cat?

As they grow, kittens adapt to their new homes, and they begin to be more playful; active and adventurer, and to turn themselves as a source of fun.

At the ages of eight or nine months, the moment comes in which you have to take a decision about them living always at home or if they will go outside once in a while.

If you choose the second option, you have to educate them first. If a kitten passes the first month of life inside the house and then you let him go outside to the street, he will immediately feel drunk with the vision of a fascinating world full of new images, odors and sounds.

This is more dangerous, he can, without wanting to, invade the neighbor's cat territory and have a great fright for it.

The key is to let him go out at first during short periods, without loosing him from your sight so he won't get near to any other cats from the area.

A good technique consist on taking bits of tasty food, as sardines or tuna fish, to attract him back if goes to far away.

Some owners prefer to do these trips with provisional leashes. Soon the cat will start to mark its own territory with his own odors, rubbing its head and loin against trees and fences to establish a "map" of the territory and to make its presence evident to any cat that goes through it.

Once this stage is over, you can start to increase the periods of time on the outside, but always being alert to any kind of challenge from other cats, and calling him to feed him if you observe that this happens. This way you will also be teaching him that food is at home.

The next stage, if your door has a trap door for cats, to teach him how to use it and never forget to see if it's well closed at night when the cat is inside.

Cat Embellishment
The embellishment is basically for strengthening the affective bond between the kitten and its owner, overall in the first days, when he misses the attention of the mother, even if they don't need it from an hygienic point of view.

The ideal is to brush him softly with the hand or with a brush with soft bristles and to talk to him at the same time for him to get used to the pleasures of the company of human beings and to establish a relation of happiness, of a plain and not ending confidence.

The embellishment also gives the opportunity, like in adult cats, to make a general inspection of the state of the skin, hair, ears, eyes, etc.

Kittens are specially inclined to suffer from ear infections. The first symptom is the appearance of a dark brown substance inside the auditory conduit.

Parasites inside cat ears tend to multiply very fast and they produce pain and intense irritations, even causing an irrational behavior. In these cases, don't usually get ill, and when they get to the new owners hands, they normally have overcome the most critical stage of their lives, in a similar way as human adolescents do, and they are in a stage in which they enjoy of a very good health.